Due to statements by Fr.
William Schulenburg, former Abbot of the Basilica of Guadalupe, denying
the historicity of Juan Diego, the Indian who saw Our Lady of Guadalupe,
the Vatican has sponsored a detailed study, the results of which are now
avilable. Fr. Schulenburg stated that the canonization of Juan Diego
would be ridiculous as there is no proof of his existence.

This statement, made on various
occasions by the former Abbot, has been made for ages by other
personalities. On April 18, 1794, Spanish academic Juan Bautista Muñoz,
maintained for the first time that the Guadalupe event lacked historical
basis. If such claims are true, they would mean that on May 6, 1990,
John Paul II beatified a ghost, created by excitable Mexican
religiosity, not to mention the fact that the Guadalupe apparitions
themselves would lose all credibility.

Professor Fr. Fidel Gonzalez
Fernandez, who teaches Church History at the Pontifical Urban and
Gregorian Universities, and is recognized as one of the leading experts
in the field, was named president of the Vatican Commission, which
engaged some 30 researchers of various nationalities. The Commission
made a decisive contribution not only to justify Juan Diego’s
historicity, but also to shed new light on Mexico’s history. Fr.
Gonzalez discussed the results of this work during an extraordinary
congress held in the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints on
October 28, 1998, obtaining positive success in resolving the doubts
presented by the historical dimension.

Perhaps one of the most
original works of Fr. Gonzalez, who was assisted in his research by
other members of the Commission, such as Eduardo Chavez Sanchez and Jose
Luis Guerrero Rosado (Cf. "The Meeting of the Virgin of Guadalupe
and Juan Diego," Editorial Porrua, Mexico, 1999, pp. 564) is the
presentation of 27 Guadalupe Indian documents and testimonies and 8 of
mixed Spanish-Indian origin. Outstanding among them is "El Nican
Mopohua" and the so-called "Escalada" Manuscript.

"El Nican Mopohua,"
written by Indian Antonio Valeriano, is a singular testimony of the
process of transculturation of Christianity in New Spain. However, the
question regarding the historicity of its content and the degree of
literary embellishment or cultural background, continues to be
vehemently debated. Each word of the 218 verses of "Nican Mopohua"
has meaning within the Nahuas philosophy and mythology as well as in
Christian philosophy. Being a literary text, it has no historical value;
however, it offers the testimony of the Indian cosmovision of the time,
something far more important for that culture than a dated chronicle
would have been.

Moreover, its author—an
Indian of the pure Tecpaneca race—was a witness, as he lived between
1520 and 1606. Historians assert that he was a nephew of emperor
Montezuma. In 1533, at 13 years of age, which testifies to the
impressive work carried out by the missionaries, this Indian already
began studies at the Holy Cross School of Tlatelolco, founded by Bishop
Juan de Zumarraga. He was, therefore, one of the first Indians to speak
Latin and governor of Azcapotzalco for 35 years. He was 11 years old in
1531, the year of the apparitions, and 28 in 1548, when Juan Diego died.

The "Escalada"
Manuscript, signed by Indian Antonio Valeriano and Spanish Friar
Bernardino de Sahagun, which has been recently discovered, is a direct
testimony of Juan Diego’s historicity, as it has a type "death
certificate" of the Indian.

Given that historical documents
related to the 20 years that followed the Guadalupe apparitions have not
been found to date, those who are opposed say that this documentary
"silence" is proof that they did not exist. What is forgotten,
however, is that many Indian sources were destroyed, as two indisputable
authorities of earliest times—Friar Bernardino de Sahagun and Geronimo
de Mendieta declare. Moreover, one must not ignore other historical
facts like the fire of the Mexico City Archives in 1692 and the
so-called "paper crisis" that overwhelmed New Spain for a long
time and made necessary—as normal procedure, the recycling of used
paper, including of documents in archives, for new purposes either in
business or writing.

Unanswered Questions

Opponents of the apparitions,
however, cannot explain with historical elements some decisive aspects
of Mexican history without keeping in mind the miracle of Guadalupe. As,
for example, the time when after a dramatic conquest and three painful
divisions and clashes in the heart of the Nahuatl political realm, a
hermitage was built immediately, dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the
title Guadalupe on the hill of Tepeyac, a significant location of the
Indian world.

Nor do they explain how
Guadalupe became a sign of a new religious history and a crossroads
between two worlds which, until that moment, were in dramatic
opposition.

The historicity of the Blessed
has been so well established that Fr. Fidel Gonzalez, the president of
the Commission established by the Roman Congregation for the Causes of
Saints, is studying Juan Diego’s social origins. It is not known
whether he was a noble or "poor" Indian. This confusion is
caused by the Spanish translations of "Nican Mopohua."

There are many other historical
proofs of Juan Diego’s existence as, for example, the oral tradition,
decisive source in studying Mexican peoples, whose culture is primarily
oral. This tradition, in such cases tends to follow well established
rules and, in the case of Guadalupe, it always confirms the historical
and spiritual figure of Juan Diego.ZE99121909